natural_selection_activity

Natural Selection Activity Name ____________________________
OH NO! The island of DSAland is under major ecological stress. All of the organisms that live
on it are starving to death due to a huge drought that is causing all of the plants to die. The only
two surviving plants are the Greenus Beanus plant and the Whiteus Beanus plant on the northern
edge of the island (near the courtyard, of course!). Due to lack of resources, the organisms are
faced to feed on seeds as their only means of nutrition. The competition is getting tough! Who
will survive?
Here is a list of the animals left on the island of DSAland:
 Splint-Nosed Phoo-Phoos – exotic birds that use their dry tongues to get food (knife)
 Red-Eyed Tubees – mammals that use their dexterous hands to get food (hands)
 Sleek-Eared Snot Faces – reptiles that use small claws to dig up food (fork)
 Prancing Ku-Kus – spoon-billed birds that scoop up food (spoon)
 Dart-Mouthed Greasers – insect-eating birds with sharp, pointy beaks (tweezers)
The only species of these animals that usually eats seeds are the Red-Eyed Tubees, but the other
animals are hard-pressed for nutrition and will try anything!
For today, I am a _____________________________________________.
Here are the rules:
 You must try to eat as much food as possible in order to survive. You will have three
minutes to get as many seeds as you can into your stomach (plastic cup).
 You are only allowed to use your given tool to pick up the seeds. Your stomach (cup)
must never touch the ground. You have to get the seed and raise it to your stomach.
 Any other individual’s seed is fair game until it is in their stomach. You may not make
another organism “throw up”, but if someone does it on their own, they must begin again.
 Have fun and don’t get too crazy! If you spend all of your energy trying to harass other
organisms, you won’t collect any food of your own and you will die!
Make some predictions:
Which plant do you think will have most of its seeds eaten? Why?
Which animal species will be the best at getting food? Why?
Which animal species will do the worst? Why?
Data collected:
Individual Class
Greenus Beanus __________ __________
Whiteus Beanus __________ __________
Which type of plant will survive the best on the island of DSAland? Why?
If a mutation occurs somewhere down the line, what kind of mutation might be beneficial for
Whiteus Beanus?
How many seeds did each of the following organisms collect?
Total # seeds # of individuals Average # seeds
Splint-Nosed Phoo-Phoos ____________ ____________ ____________
Red-Eyed Tubees ____________ ____________ ____________
Sleek-Eared Snot Faces ____________ ____________ ____________
Prancing Ku-Kus ____________ ____________ ____________
Dart-Mouthed Greasers ____________ ____________ ____________
Which of these species will have the lowest survival rate? What will eventually happen to that
species?
Which of these species will have the highest survival rate? What will eventually happen to that
species?
Which traits did natural selection favor? In other words, which adaptations were the most
beneficial in this environment?
Graphical Representation of Results
Using a bar graph, show the average number of seeds eaten vs. each type of animal species that
ate them. (Hint: you will have one bar per animal species)
Using a bar graph, show the total number of seeds eaten vs. the type of plant that produced them.